What is Digg?107 Comments
- geoboy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+109Hmmm... sounds like a job for Mythbusters. Actually, if the FCC ever catches an episode like that airing, I'm sure some heads would roll.
*bahdoo chshhhh!* - NghtShd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+59I'm willing. How would you like your head mounted?
- adminmatt, on 10/12/2007, -13/+69do i smell controled experiment?
now all i need to find is some willing hobos - bristolz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+57I'm afraid they've all lost their heads.
- LMNOP, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36sitting in the neuro ICU here and my neurosurgeon asked what i was reading... told him about it, his comment was "i believe it"
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22Great band name.
- kodekitten, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Yikes! Some of us are actually interested -- digg does have a science tag.
To comment on the article: I really don't see having moments of lucidity as too much of a farfetched idea here. It is well known that the brain tissues can still function fairly well when starved for oxygen for a few seconds. If a brain loses its blood supply or its oxygen supply, it doesn't stop functioning completely immediately. It will have a bit of a delay for a few reasons: practically, the brain doesn't drain of blood immediately and thus still has a fuel supply for a few moments and the biological processes that are currently being completed with said fuel may still go through, although due to lack of blood new ones cannot be initiated..
However, muscular twitches due to neurological damage cannot be ruled out, and I love the fact that many of these prisoners promised to wink, yet the witnesses seemed startled that they didn't comply. I REALLY don't think that would be high on my list of priorities, and even if I DID realize I had nothing yet to lose, the pain would probably take over what little thinking power I had left. - beoswulf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14The headless chicken runs around because the nervous system of chickens is much lower than humans. When you cut the head of a chicken off it's easy to miss some of the lower brain stem that's still the neck. That little piece of brainstem is enough to keep a chicken functioning. There's a famous, documented example of a headless chicken that lived for days. By its attempts to peck and squark it didn't even seem to realize it had been decapitated.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17I'll pay AFTER the experiment is completed.
- DEFSMAC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14who died and made you the authority on what "we" don't want to hear about. common sense would dictate that stuff "we" do want to hear about makes it to the front page, and stuff "we" don't want to see never sees the front page.
- tjl2015, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Best line:
"It goes without saying that there are no first-hand accounts to shed further light on the subject."
Of course to analyze this you need a good head on your shoulders....
It helps to be headstrong...
The doctors who studied this during the French Revolution were really ahead of their times... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10You're forgetting that while he 'work' was heavily frowned upon, there was a mad scramble to get at his records after WW2 ended. He did all those things that regular scientists had longed to do but weren't able.
- trash115, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11i come from a farm, and we would butcher chickens every year.
Every so often, after cutting off a chicken's head, you could see the chicken looking around at us and trying to sqawk.
Also, the headless chicken's body would run around! It was a pretty creepy thing to see. - beoswulf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Sorry, make that 18 months.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken - LordofChaosIori, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8This is horribly disturbing and also horribly interesting...
- pondster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8umm... yeah.... Did you read the article? Maybe thats where you saw it before
In the book Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry, a story is related where the unnamed servant of chemist Antoine Lavoisier was beheaded by guillotine. According to the writer, Lavoisier immediately picked up the head and asked the servant to blink if he understood. Reportedly, the man blinked. There is also an oft-repeated anecdote involving Antoine Lavoisier's own later experience on the guillotine in 1794. The story is dubious considering that it does not appear in any of his biographies, but reportedly he told his assistant that he would blink for as long as he was able after execution, and successfully did so for fifteen to twenty seconds. - chad78, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I think it's cool that you actually spelled a rim shot - and I instantly recognized it. Awesome onomatopoeia! Plus Digg for you!
- Dufresne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7well apparently people do want to hear about it; look at all the diggs. Digg leans toward the technical side, but not totally technical and it really doesn't have to be tech related, and everyone complaining is only making it worse.
- UsernameTaken, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@daRoach
The existence of the "fail-safe switch" that you refer is not a 100% proven fact, and it is a matter of debate whether it operates in all subjects at any given extreme trauma. In laboratory animals brain activity correlating with consciousness has been recorded well after decapitation, which is enough reason to prohibit such practice in some countries, or at least to compel researchers to halt the animal's brain activity by snap freezing the head in liquid nitrogen. - geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I knew this sounded familiar.. Antoine Lavoisier was also the person who discovered Oxygen, and first stated the Law of Conversation of Matter (not to mention all of the other stuff he did with his life before being prematurely killed via guillotine).
Pretty wicked stuff. (Way to go College Chemistry 102. Telling that to your students DEFINITELY will help them pay attention). - foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7He went Caput!
Bring on Futurama! the heads in Jars! - JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6If you could get their jugular vein and carotid artery attached to an artificial heart/oxygenation machine, maybe you could keep the head alive for a while. I think they have actually done head transplants on monkeys. The head can't control the body, but it stays conscious for a while.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1263758.stm - Klowner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4warning - actual decapitated chinese heads.. eeeh
- Vimes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"I think we just all want to hear kevin and alex talk this."
They'll never do it. This is creepier than Eerie Zombie Dogs. - uirye, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Just because there was a mad dash for what he did doesn't make it ethical. Just as decaptating people for the sake of discovering lucid decapitation isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, ethical science.
- iamtheratio, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5ummm KFC ?
- Bluezdood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Dang, wish I had read that before I clicked.
- winampman2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7He probably means he watched one on teh internet. You can download those Iraqi decapitation videos, and there was half a decapitation in Fahrenheit 911...
- patrickweber, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7haha.. that's so wrong on so many levels
- Soave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Heh... http://www.explosm.net/db/files/Comics/Dave/comicbiology.jpg
- beatniak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2totally agree. (made me kinda sick as well, but still philosophisically kinda interesting)
- Clopy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2From the article:
"Beheading has been discontinued as a form of execution in much of the world due to the suspicion that a severed head remains conscious and able to experience pain, so there have been no recent scientific observation of human decapitation"
Mmmm, we had "suspicions" about wether the head is able to experience pain, so we switched to electric chairs just to be sure that the victim experiences pain sometimes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair - zydehkim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You know, I think Digg should automatically post Damn Interesting's new posts. They always seem to make it to the front page.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Can't... take... thinking.. about.... this
- Chris71990, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Just in case anyone is reading the comments to see if there is any gory or disturbing images before continuing there is no pictures other than old renaissance art and a picture of somebody ready to be guillotined with his head still attached
- speedmaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There's always that first cool rush of air you'll feel.
- fullback, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Additional studies have shown that many beheaded people move on to successful careers as TV talkshow personalities and, of course, politicians.
- beatniak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Too bad???? Are .... You .... Freakin' .... Serious ????
- JFetch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It was on the History channel show about the guillotine.
http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=72346 - angryredplanet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This was an interesting read, but at the end of the day the decapitated victim/criminal[/whatever] dies. Studying whether they're concious of pain or able to concieve thoughts or able to make their eyes, lips or mouth move proves what? They'll be dead in 20 or so seconds (which is generally the point of decapitation) so really what will human-kind gain from experimenting on other humans or animals put to death this way other than to satisfy our macabre curiosity?
Driven by said curiosity, I watched the Berg decapitation (link posted at the bottom of original article) and I haven't eaten since... very sobering stuff. I feel for his family. - Yorn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wikipedia is actually a better source (which was this article's source) on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decapitation - coding, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This was discussed on the ricky gervais podcast. Karl pilkinton brought it up.
- yahoofrom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is scary. this reminds me of another equilly-scary fact that in old days something used as anesthetic for child surgery turned out to only paralise the subject.
By the way, I wonder what happens to the consciousness when it is near to stop. What if your consciousness is just stuck in the painful moment of death and you never experience the stop. - 0x2a, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anyone else notice that the word 'lucid' in the title of a story means instant front page? Maybe its just me
- johnnyOnline, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1two words: HEEBIE JEEBIES
- Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll take that bet. Do me a favor and write my winnings into your will beforehand.
- jimbo92107, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Betcha I could blink for at least 20...no, 22 seconds!
- aMMgYrP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1looks like I won't be sleeping well tonight...
- iWorks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1not only is not *instant* but you can go on to have quite a lucrative television career... case in point : http://www.maxheadroom.com/mh_home.html
- briangig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're on!
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